Designs To Reduce Wait Times, Real and Perceived

Research

Soon after I started at LS3P I was asked by a College of Charleston Hospitality and Tourism Management professor to present to their students regarding the myriad ways that design can affect the guest or customer experience of a company. He had recently read (and had his students read) a paper titled Servicescapes: The Impact of Physical Surroundings on Customers and Employees, and tasked me with providing a broader view of the research on the subject for his students.

Who doesn't like waiting in line?

While the scope of the research presented is too broad to cover in a single post, one of the favorite topics relates to the ways in which architecture can influence actual and perceived wait times of customers, a topic described well in a 1985 article from David Maister titled the Psychology of Waiting Lines. While I’ll cover many of the practical applications in the Implications section below, the root of the theory can be summed up in a simple formula. Maister’s take on what he calls the ‘First Law of Service’:

S = P – E
In this formulation, ‘S’ stands for satisfaction, ‘P’ for perception and ‘E’ for expectation. If you expect a certain level of service, and perceive the service reviewed to be higher, you are a satisfied client. If you perceive the same level as before, but expected higher, you are disappointed and, consequently, a dissatisfied client.

The reason this concept is so critical is that it highlights how the actual wait time a customer endures isn’t necessarily the most important driver with their satisfaction of a given service or company, their perception of the wait is arguably more important. People accept the fact that we need to wait in a variety of situations, so the important thing is to bring the customer’s perception of the wait time below their expectation of what a reasonable wait time should be. Fortunately, a body of research has taught us ways that designers can potentially help get this equation into positive territory.

The perception of wait time has huge implications on overall satisfaction, with one study in urgent care settings determining that “that total time spent waiting for the clinician was the most significant predictor of patient satisfaction”.

Implications

Maister offers up eight rules of waiting in his article that I suggest any business owner read. Below I’ve cherry picked those that have the biggest implications for design. Ultimately these issues are rooted in operations, but in most instances these operations can benefit by having an environment that supports what you’re trying to accomplish through service.

• Occupied time feels shorter than unoccupied time
  • Hotels place mirrors next to elevators to distract guests waiting for them
  • Grocery stores place reading materials in checkout lines
  • Blockbuster places a TV with coming attractions near their checkout lines
  • Restaurants give patrons menus before they sit down to peruse
  • Waiting rooms in healthcare settings can provide self-help informational materials for the subject patients are seeking care for

Grocery stores are increasingly moving towards branded TV networks in their checkout lines

• ‘Start’ the service early
  • Restaurants send patrons to the bar while waiting for a table. One popular seafood restaurant in Charleston has host staff pass out free hush puppies to patrons waiting outside.
  • SC DMV uses a concierge to check people in immediately, generally giving them forms to fill out before meeting the attendant
• Anxiety makes waits seem longer
  • In the DMV situation above, the concierge also lets people know whether or not they have the materials they need, reducing anxiety
  • Consider estimated wait times for airport security checkpoints
• Uncertain/Unexplained waits are longer than known, finite waits
  • Highways are increasingly showing travel times based on current traffic on heavily traveled highways
  • Amusement parks place placards explaining estimated wait times at certain points in line for popular rides
  • Restaurants frequently tell patrons overestimated wait times (reducing ‘E’) so they will be pleased when seated in a more timely fashion
  • Highways increasingly provide accident info (“Wreck on exit 43”) so people have some explanation of what is causing the delay
  • Break or non-service areas should be staged away from the view of those being served (e.g. a bank teller needing to catch up on paperwork needs an area away from sight of those seeking service to do so… people don’t understand why the teller is just ‘standing there’ not helping)

Signs estimating wait times for subways/buses are becoming increasingly popular.

• Fair waits are shorter than unfair waits
  • Single line served by multiple tellers ensure first come, first served, while multiple lines (one per teller) often results in fast lane slow lane issues.
• People will wait longer for services that seem more valuable
  • People are willing to wait far longer for higher end restaurants than those in fast food or lower priced establishments
• Solo waits feel longer than group waits
  • Consider ways to encourage social interaction among people in line

Citations

Beckler, Franklin and Stephanie Jones Douglass. The Ecology of the Patient Visit: Physical Attractiveness, Waiting Times, and Perceived Quality of Care.  Healthcare Design.  November 2006.

Bitner, Mary Jo. Servicescapes: The Impact of Physical Surroundings on Customers and Employees. Journal of Marketing. Vol 56: April 1992, 57-71.

Maister, David. The Psychology of Waiting Lines. The Service Encounter. ed. John A Czepiel, Michael R. Solomon, and Carol Suprenant. DC Heath and Company: Lexington Books, 1985.